Sugar

This is student work for a Day of the Dead project at California State University Northridge. I wanted to incorporate traditional imagery such as the sugar skull, but in an impactful, and more graphic way.
I molded a sugar skull out of a kneaded eraser and had my daughter hold it between her teeth while I photographed it. I then adjusted the color and contrast of the photo in Adobe Lightroom CC to more easily break down how I would separate the colors for the final print.
Once the photograph was cropped in an interesting way, I enlarged it and traced the various elements I wanted for each of the separated colors.
Each layer was transferred to the linoleum block, carved away, and then printed separately. Once the layer is carved and printed there is no going back since it is a reductive process. This means that careful planning is required, and any mistakes need to be incorporated into the design.
After the four layers were printed, I added gold leafing to the tooth.